Target date for Tribune Publishing spinoff set

Tribune Publishing revealed a target date for its spinoff from the Tribune Company during a meeting with investors, The Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

The report, which attributes the information to unnamed sources, puts the date tentatively at Aug. 4, and says the investors’ meeting took place June 17 in New York. The spinoff will move the Tribune Company’s publishing assets — among them the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times — into a separate company.

In the first quarter of 2014 revenues for the company’s publishing division were down 3 percent over the same period the year before, according to an earnings report published May 20. Broadcasting revenues were up 67 percent that quarter. The decline in publishing revenues was “primarily attributable to declines in advertising revenue of $19.3 million and declines in revenues from commercial printing and delivery services of $4.1 million,” the report said.

As Poynter previously reported, The Tribune Company had “identified reductions in its staffing levels of approximately 65″ positions in the first quarter and recorded severance expenses “primarily at publishing” operations.

If the spinoff proceeds on target, it will come nearly two months after the spinoff of Time Warner’s publishing division, Time Inc, and more than a year after media conglomerate News Corp divided its entertainment assets from its print products, including the Wall Street Journal.

Tribune Publishing is seeking to raise $350 million in conjunction with its planned spinoff from Tribune Company, The Chicago Tribune reports.